Intelligent Manufacturing € November € 1996 € Vol. 2 € No. 11

Microsoft Launches Value Chain Initiative

Software giant Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wash.) has formed the Value Chain Initiative (VCI), an alliance committed to developing integrated Windows NT-based supply chain solutions. The initiative is designed to create standard tool sets for collaborative communication and management decision support between various manufacturing, warehouse, logistics, and distribution systems to minimize time-to-customer.

The initiative comes as the transportation scenario -- conveying raw materials to manufacturers, goods to distributors, products to retailers and purchases to customers -- increasingly requires the exchange of real-time information to ensure a product's timely arrival.

By creating a continuous data stream through a linked series of logistics solutions, the VCI will offer manufacturers and retailers a way to manage their transportation and logistics resources more effectively. Hardware manufacturers Compaq Computer Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp., the Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech and 22 software solutions companies are involved in the initiative.

Early VCI-compliant solutions, such as i2 Technologies' Value Chain Planner (see "Products") are currently in use, and others are scheduled to be available early next year. A VCI Standards Committee will meet monthly on the Internet to determine standard tool sets for collaborative communications and management decisions. More information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.microsoft.com/industry/trans.

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